SI can make much of its legal vetting and discussions. But I wonder if, early in the planning process, anyone at the decision-making level sighed and said, “Do we really have to do another of these? Do they perform a public service in 2013?”

As such, the articles seem to be causing more of a yawn than SI could have anticipated. Given the struggles facing SI and other magazines, it might not have been the best strategy.

But just as outmoded is SI’s “it’s legal!” strategy. Maybe back in the day of fewer media outlets, that might have worked. Considering the multiple outlets fans can choose from today, SI might be again miscalculating.

Perhaps Thayer Evans once again actually did keep just to this side of legal and non actionable behavior. (NOTE: Or perhaps not. After this story was posted, ESPN posted its own story casting doubt on several facts in the article.)

But Evans’ approach to ethics has been clear from his actions in the past. There, it is obvious that his goal is professional success, and anyone involved — sources or subjects — is a means to that end. And that approach might cost SI more readers than the results would generate.

And in this situation, Evans has practiced his specialty of carpet-bomb interviews. He approaches a slew of sources with no warning, neglects to say he is conducting an interview (though I always warn anyone that when you are talking to a journalist, you are being interviewed), and slaps the results together with zero concern for the interview subject.

(Disclosure: I am a faculty member at Auburn University. I will claim my concern is based on ethics, not content. But that is for the reader to judge.)

Today, when a writer’s past is transparent, regardless of his own ethics, Evans’ record is there to judge. So that when sources claim that he deceived, or did not fully disclose, or misquoted, readers have a lot of evidence at their disposal.

For some reason, Thayer Evans is a sports journalism Lane Kiffin, falling upward after consistent ethical fumbles. Apparently SI likes him because he “gets the story;” I almost expect his SI editors to be wearing green eyeshades in smoke-filled rooms. A former SI staffer had his own theories as to why Evans and Pete Thamel were hired, along with concerns.

And maybe they paired him with George Dohrmann, a Pulitzer Prize winner, to add a respectable veneer to his reporting tactics. Like expecting a clean dog to scare the fleas off its mangy companion.

The Oklahoma State series might not result in any successful lawsuits. But the journalism being practiced and endorsed — in both its ethics and its perspective — belongs to another age. Its statute of limitations has long run out.

To my students and other journalism students, a reminder: The subjects you interview and write about are human beings, not objects.

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Awesome article!
“After this story was posted, ESPN posted its own story casting doubt on several facts in the article.”
They didn’t do the same with AU and Cam. I don’t recall any news agency casting doubt and only one reporter who did: CBS’ Gregg Doyel. No apologies from ESPN when AU and Cam were cleared after a year+ NCAA investigation.